Free
JCA Signature Series: Ellen Larson, art historian
September 27, 2024 @ 7:30pm
“Ephemeral Architectures: Archiving contemporary moving image art from China”
Since the late 1980s, contemporary artists from China have adapted video as a medium to closely examine cultural conditions and ephemeron within all levels of society. Resulting works of video and performance art detail urban change and deconstruct modern Chinese notions of “truth” and “reality.” These projects may be understood as ephemeral not only in terms of their media-specific form (the moving image), but also when employed by artists to remember spaces, structures, and environments otherwise dismantled or forgotten within the context of China’s modern social transformation.
Drawing from the multifaceted histories of early video, performance, and exhibition documentation from the 1990s and early 2000s, this talk will introduce how recent archival practices allow us to better understand, preserve, and exhibit contemporary moving image art from China.
Dr. Ellen Larson (she/they) is a Chicago-based curator, designer, writer, and educator. She is currently the 2024 Margaret F. Williams Memorial Asian Art Curatorial Fellow, supported by the Asia Foundation and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. They have organized exhibitions, screenings, and cultural symposia throughout China and the United States, and their writing has appeared in many prominent publications, including Art+Australia, ARTMargins by MIT Press, Millennium Film Journal, The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas, and LEAP: International Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. Dr. Larson’s research has been recognized and supported by the US Fulbright Program, the Getty Foundation, the Asia Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Dunhuang Foundation, the Center for Contemporary Art Research in Japan Program, and the University of Chicago’s Provost’s Global Faculty Award and Center for the Art of East Asia.
This performance is free and open to the public, no ticket is required.
“Ephemeral Architectures: Archiving contemporary moving image art from China”
Since the late 1980s, contemporary artists from China have adapted video as a medium to closely examine cultural conditions and ephemeron within all levels of society. Resulting works of video and performance art detail urban change and deconstruct modern Chinese notions of “truth” and “reality.” These projects may be understood as ephemeral not only in terms of their media-specific form (the moving image), but also when employed by artists to remember spaces, structures, and environments otherwise dismantled or forgotten within the context of China’s modern social transformation.
Drawing from the multifaceted histories of early video, performance, and exhibition documentation from the 1990s and early 2000s, this talk will introduce how recent archival practices allow us to better understand, preserve, and exhibit contemporary moving image art from China.
Dr. Ellen Larson (she/they) is a Chicago-based curator, designer, writer, and educator. She is currently the 2024 Margaret F. Williams Memorial Asian Art Curatorial Fellow, supported by the Asia Foundation and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. They have organized exhibitions, screenings, and cultural symposia throughout China and the United States, and their writing has appeared in many prominent publications, including Art+Australia, ARTMargins by MIT Press, Millennium Film Journal, The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas, and LEAP: International Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. Dr. Larson’s research has been recognized and supported by the US Fulbright Program, the Getty Foundation, the Asia Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Dunhuang Foundation, the Center for Contemporary Art Research in Japan Program, and the University of Chicago’s Provost’s Global Faculty Award and Center for the Art of East Asia.
This performance is free and open to the public, no ticket is required.